The Kid mentioned to me the other day: “Mom, did you know Tony the Tiger donates money to keep sports in schools?” We had a short conversation about it, and I told him I’d look up the details. Here are the details: you buy a box of Frosted Flakes. You upload your receipt, and Kellogg’s … Read more
Three things that came together recently: 1- The Kid had a sleepover the other night. Big fun! They played with LEGO, jumped on the trampoline, drank hot chocolate, read about sharks, played in the yard, and might have even slept in there somewhere. At breakfast, I was making pancakes, and they had made up and … Read more
In the media, and in conversations with believers of said media, you will learn that anyone can be a teacher, that “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach,” that passive learning from a video is the same as learning from a dynamic teacher. Basically, teaching is not a skill. I’m here to tell you … Read more
The Kid is learning to read. I mean, he’s in the years-long process of learning to read. He loves to read. Part of that is that he reads things that are interesting to him. It doesn’t have to be books. It doesn’t have to be at his reading level. Whatever is interesting. Sometimes, he likes … Read more
(If you missed the original post/project details, you can find it here.) Kids have been off and on with the sticky notes. I have needed to replenish them a time or two, but most seem to have chosen a couple, stuck them in their music binder, and not messed with them again. Earlier this week, … Read more
A law was passed in Oregon that students’ absences due to mental health issues can be excused. But until I looked it up and read about it, all I knew was that “mental health days” are now excused. Having a legit mental health issue and “taking a mental health day” are two very different things, … Read more
After going through a handful of ideas, I put up the display shown in the picture in both of my classrooms. In case you can’t see the photo, there’s a poster in the middle that says “take what you need,” surrounded by sticky-notes with messages. You got this! I can do it! Mistakes are opportunities … Read more
I wrote over the weekend about K-12 school standards and their inappropriateness. A loud argument in favor of the standards is “kids need to be ready!” Ready for what? Preschoolers need to learn their letters so they’re ready for kindergarten. But we decided that they need that for kindergarten. It’s top-down. We want them to … Read more
One in three children in the US can’t read at grade level. For many people, that means that schools aren’t doing their jobs and we need more accountability and more testing. What if we redefined “at grade level”? I got into this a bit the other day, but we have completely redefined “at grade level” … Read more
In my masters program, I had a class on group counseling. It was one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken. A tiny slice that I remember: in talking about group therapy, you can put depressed people together and they don’t amplify each other’s depression. You can put anxious people together, and they don’t … Read more